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from Global Investing:
Fresh skirmishes in global currency war
Amid all the furious G7 money printing of recent years, Brazil was the first to sound the air raid siren in the "international currency war" back in 2010 and it continues to cry foul over the past week. With its finance ministry issuing fresh warnings last night over hot-money flows being dropped by western economies on its unsuspecting exporters via currency speculation, Brazil's central bank then set off its own defensive anti aircraft battery with a surprisingly deep interest rate cut late Wednesday. Having tried everything from taxes on hot foreign inflows to currency market intervention, they are braced for a long war and there's little sign of the flood of cheap money from the United States, Europe and Japan ending anytime soon. So, if you can't beat them, do you simply join them?
The prospect of a deepening of this currency conflict -- essentially beggar-thy-neighbour devaluation policies designed to keep countries' share of ebbing world growth intact -- was a hot topic this week for Societe Generale's long-standing global markets bear Albert Edwards. Edwards, who represent's SG's "Alternative View", reckons the biggest development in the currency battle this year has been the sharp retreat of Japan's yen and this could well drag China into the fray if global growth continues to wither later this year. He highlighted the Japan/China standoff with the following graphic of yen and yuan nominal trade-weighted exchange rates.
Edwards goes on to say that this could, in turn, create another explosive FX standoff between China and the United States if Beijing were to consider devaluation -- the opposite of what the protectionist U.S. lobby has been screaming for for years.
"We have long stated that if the Chinese economy looks to be hard landing, as we believe it will, the authorities there will actively consider renminbi devaluation, despite the political consequences of such action."
from Photographers Blog:
Clinging to life in a tsunami zone
By Toru Hanai
Choufuku Ishisone of Miyako, Iwate prefecture, owns a convenience store.
On March 11, 2011, Ishisone was driving to see his store after checking on his house following the earthquake and saw a black tsunami wave roar over a seawall. He made a U-turn, but the tsunami struck him from multiple directions, sending his car afloat. The engine stopped. He jumped out of the car in a hurry but lost his footing in the tsunami and was swallowed up in the thick, black water.
He managed to avoid cars, ships and other debris carried by the tsunami but the water level continued to rise steadily. Grabbing onto a power line pole as he was swept past, he scrambled up so desperately that he was about five meters high before he knew it.
from Edward Hadas:
The lesson of Fukushima
The first anniversary of Japan’s nuclear disaster is a good time to take stock. Opponents and proponents of nuclear power are doing so, and they have come to the same conclusion: “We were right all along.”
The meltdown at the Fukushima power plant is certainly grist for the mill of the anti-nuclear crowd. It forced the evacuation of 300,000 people and will cost as much as $250 billion to clean up, according to the Japan Center for Economic Research. If a natural disaster can trigger such a dangerous, disruptive and expensive crisis in a country as advanced as Japan, then it’s impossible to guarantee safety anywhere. Efforts to do the impossible will make nuclear power even more expensive and, by some analyses including that of the Worldwatch Institute, it already costs more than solar energy.
from Breakingviews:
Japan quake anniversary shows lessons unlearned
By Wayne Arnold
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Japan’s remarkable recovery from last year’s tragic earthquake leaves big lessons unlearned. The economy bounced back more quickly than expected after March’s earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear leak. But the government flunked a bigger test by failing to push through painful reforms. Now Japan is a year older, deeper in debt and facing the same economic downward spiral it was in before the catastrophe.
from Photographers Blog:
One year from that day
By Toru Hanai
It will soon be one year from that day - March 11, 2011.
Greetings among friends who meet after a long absence begins with, "Where and what were you doing on March 11?"
On March 11, 2011, I was photographing Prime Minister Naoto Kan during a committee session at the Parliament building in Tokyo.
from Full Focus:
Tsunami: Before and after
The moment when the tsunami struck Japan and the same view today.
from Photographers Blog:
Healing power of photography
By Yuriko Nakao
The 3.11 Portrait Project brings smiles to the victims of the triple-whammy disaster through the power of the photograph
After the magnitude 9.0 earthquake rocked Japan in March 11 last year, as a photographer for a newswire service, I had many chances to document reality, which was often depressing and shocking. However, at times, I would feel rewarded when my work brought positive results by inviting support and compassion from around the world to those who were suffering. However, still, the support was often not directed specifically to the person pictured in my shots, which often made me feel helpless.
from Photographers Blog:
A fisherman’s sad tale
By Yuriko Nakao
Seaweed grower Takaaki Watanabe took to the sea in his boat before the massive tsunami roared into the northeastern Japanese town of Minamisanriku, becoming one of a lucky few to save the vessel essential for their livelihood.
But back on shore the raging waters of March 11 swept away his wife, his mother and his house, built on land in his family for 13 generations, though his three teenaged daughters managed to survive.
from Photographers Blog:
With or without you
By Yuriko Nakao
One photo of a young woman, wrapped in a beige blanket and standing in front of a pile of debris, became one of the iconic images right after Japan’s massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake, which triggered huge tsunamis that devastated a wide swathe of northern Japan.
Reuters, along with other major agencies, picked up the photograph run by Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, shot by Tadashi Okubo, a photographer with the paper. The image was published extensively around the world, and many people came to know her as the woman wrapped in a blanket.
from Photographers Blog:
Flirt
Photographer Damir Sagolj won second place in the multimedia story section of the POYi awards for the following piece on the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011.
View more of Damir's photographs from Japan here.
